Read full description of the books Sphere:

Michael Crichton is possibly the best science teacher for the masses since H.G. Wells. His thriller about a mysterious spherical spaceship at the bottom of the Pacific, is classic Crichton. A group of not-very-complex characters (Sharon Stone, Dustin Hoffman, Samuel Jackson & Queen Latifah in the film) assemble to solve a cleverly designed roller coaster of a mystery while attempting with mixed success to avoid sudden death & expounding (more successfully) on the latest scientific ideas, including the existence of black holes. He manages to convey the complicated stuff in utterly simplistic prose, making him, as his old pal Steven Spielberg puts it, "the high priest of high concept." Yet there's more to him than science & big-ticket show biz. He's also, as any reader of his startling memoir Travels knows, a bit of a mystic--he's open to notions spouted by spoon-bending psychics most science writers would scorn. Sphere isn't only a gratifying sf suspense tale; it also reflects his keen interest in the unexplained powers of the mind. When something passes thru a black hole in his fiction, a lesson is learned. The book also contains another profound lesson: when you're staring down a giant squid with eyeballs the size of dinner plates, don't blink 1st.

Read information about the author

Michael Crichton (1942–2008) was one of the most successful novelists of his generation, admired for his meticulous scientific research and fast-paced narrative. He graduated summa cum laude and earned his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1969. His first novel,
Odds On
(1966), was written under the pseudonym John Lange and was followed by seven more Lange novels. He also wrote as Michael Douglas and Jeffery Hudson. His novel
A Case of Need
won the Edgar Award in 1969. Popular throughout the world, he has sold more than 200 million books. His novels have been translated into thirty-eight languages, and thirteen have been made into films.

Michael Crichton passed away from lymphoma in 2008. He was 66 years old.